Don’t just blame FAM – Tengku Abdullah

PEKAN, Sept 13 : The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have questioned the Sports Commissioner’s action to issue a show cause letter to the National body for the unruly behaviour of fans at the Shah Alam Stadium last Tuesday.

FAM President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said the FAM were willing to take responsibility for the incident but claimed the National body should not be solely blamed for the fracas.

“This is a problem of security and hooliganism…so the FAM should not be the only one blamed. The aspect of security is the responsibility of the police and the stadium.

“Therefore, if the Sports Commissioner wants to suspend the FAM, the police and the stadium should also be suspended,” said Tengku Abdullah at the launch of the Community Football League at Dataran Pekan, here Sunday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Tengku Abdullah was referring to Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s statement that the Sports Commissioner may suspend the FAM if the National body failed to respond to a show cause letter within 14 days.

The show cause letter was allegedly sent to the FAM on Sept 9 by Sports Commissioner Datuk Zaiton Othman.

He said the FAM were also ready to meet Khairy if requested.

“But I might not have to meet him because there is an acting president (Datuk Seri Afandi Hamzah) since I have not changed my decision to step down as FAM President,” he said.

Khairy had demanded the FAM to give a solid statement within 14 days of an ugly incident that took place at the Shah Alam Stadium during the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying match between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia which was called off by the referee due to crowd trouble.

Match referee Liu Kwok Man from Hong Kong decided to stop the match in the 88th minute due to security reasons and safety of the players when fans started hurling smoke bombs, flares and rocket parachute flares onto the pitch.

Saudi Arabia were leading 2-1 when the incident happened.

Tengku Abdullah said the inaugural Community League sponsored by Bank Rakyat would involve the participation of 111 teams throughout the country and divided into eight zones.